The Buchanites Part One: The Woman Clothed in Sun
The Buchanites were a Christian Sect led by the charismatic Elspeth Buchan in the late 18th and early 19th Century Scotland.
One is revered as a classic of American #literature, the other is largely forgotten.
Ursula Parrott’s biographer got interested when she discovered that F. Scott Fitzgerald had at one point been hired to write the screenplay of Parrot’s “Infidelity”. Why would the most famous author of the Jazz Age be hired to adapt a story from a mostly unknown writer?
The cervical screening test, or 'pap smear' was developed thanks to a lab technician called Mary Papanicolaou, who had a vaginal swab taken every day for 20 years to advance research in this area.
Mary worked as a lab technician at Cornell University for many years but was never paid because she was a woman #HistoryOfScience#WomensHistory
#histodons can anyone recommend anything on the intersectionality of thr abolitionist and suffragette movements? And how the suffragettes came to exclude Black liberation from their work?
A quick thread of posts that should have been live yesterday (24 May). It was very inconsiderate of a cold virus to strike me down before I'd scheduled them...
Between the 1920s and 1940s, hundreds of debutantes signed up to be horse-riding couriers for the Frontier Nursing Service, a network of nurse-midwives in the rural mountains of Kentucky. Smithsonian Magazine tells the story of what they did, and why. "They got to wear pants, they got to act independently,” historian Melanie Beals Goan explains, adding that couriers were “really clinging to this idea of a nostalgic, isolated place where traditional American values continue to survive. Part of [the couriers’] adventure is the idea that they’re escaping from [parental] authority, but also that they’re going to go back in time to this really quaint place.”
In honor of #WomensHistoryMonth I decided to do a toot a day with the hashtag #WomensNonfiction. Just because I love talking about books, and my favorite genre is (auto)biographies, memoirs, and journals of interesting women through the ages. And of course I want to see what you all have to add to the list 😊 📚📚📚
Since I am a bit late, I'll be catching up for the first few days 😅
Thinking about what to sew next and, while looking for inspo, found 7 #ladysmag needlework designs I forgot I had! Unbelievably (to me) there are now 200 of the around 650 pattern sheets the magazine published between 1770 to 1820 on my Patterns of Perfection website (ladysmagazine.omeka.net). I love the vertical gown designs, but also my very sorry for itself leave sprig repeat. Both are from 1797. #embroidery#Georgian#sewing#needlework#womenshistory#periodicals#regency
#OnThisDay, 1 May 1944, South African Phyllis Latour parachutes into occupied France to be a radio operator for the British Special Operations Executive.
Executioner Johan Olofsson's receipt for the cost of executing Gertrud Jonsdotter, aged 50, and Sigrid Eriksdotter, aged 70, for witchcraft in Sveg's parish, Härjedalen, Sweden. The receipt is dated January 12, 1674.
100 years ago #OnThisDay, 3 Jun 1924, Alfonsina Strada crosses the finish line of the Giro d'Italia. She remains the only woman to have officially ridden in a Grand Tour.
At one point she had been disqualified on time grounds but was allowed to continue without the option of prizes. She finished ahead of the lantern rouge (the last cyclist to finish).
#OnThisDay, 4 Jun 1972, civil rights activist Angela Davis is acquitted in a trial over her alleged involvement in the 1970 Marin County Civic Centre attack.
Davis had been prosecuted for three capital felonies, including conspiracy to murder, after guns she owned were used in the attack. The all-white jury cleared her of all charges.
The Most Lavish Mesopotamian Tomb Ever Found Belongs to a Woman - And her clothing tells an important story, says archeologist Rita Wright, by Sarah Durn February 10, 2022
"...Archeologist and textile expert Rita Wright, professor emerita of anthropology at New York University, is the first to ever study Pu-abi’s garments based on the only surviving image of her. Her findings have just been published in the new book Art/ifacts and ArtWorks in the Ancient World. Atlas Obscura spoke to Wright about the role of women in ancient Ur, what we know of Queen Pu-abi’s life, and why textiles are so often overlooked in archeology.."
Textiles are overlooked because they are "women's" handiwork, of course. The modern science of archaeology began in the days where the only things considered to be of value were gold and jewels, or weaponry. Anything women did was considered uninteresting, not important, or presumed to be part of a "fertility cult."
#OnThisDay, 5 Jun 1833, Ada Lovelace meets Charles Babbage, triggering their collaboration on the Analytical Engine and writing the first published program.